A South African politician and activist, Mandela joined the African National Congress in the 1940s and went on to found its Youth League, taking organized political action against apartheid. In 1963 the government put him on trial for treason, condemning him to a lifetime sentence on Robben Island, from which he was released in 1990 after 27 years. In 1993 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 1994 became South Africa’s first democratically elected president, as well as its first Black president.